The mind says, 'I wish I could change the past'. The heart says, 'I'm open to the future'. Life says, 'welcome to the present'.

The Creation and Destruction of Karma

Jeff, November 26, 2012

“The law is simple. Every experience is repeated or suffered till you experience it properly and fully the first time.” – Ben Okri

In just a moment of meeting anger, or sadness, or fear, or doubt, or pain, in their raw and unfiltered and natural states, without pushing them away, without numbing ourselves to them, without manipulating them in any way, without making them into our enemies, the cycle of karma relating to that particular aspect of experience, is broken.

For in the resistance to what is, in the pushing-away of life, in the rejection of experience, in the refusal to meet THIS as it is, raw anger solidifies into “my anger”, and (false) identity is born. I am now identified as “the angry one” (or “the frustrated one” or “the one who is afraid”, and so on.) I forget myself as the vast open space of consciousness in which all sensation and feeling is deeply allowed to arise. I forget that what I truly am is naturally un-identified and non-judgemental… without having to “try” to be that! I forget my true identity as life itself. I forget the vastness, and identify as a very limited “thing”, an object in time and space. This is the birth of karma. And the beginning of violence.

The story of karma, the story of cause and effect, is the story of “This object or person MADE me angry”. I repeat the story time and time again, to myself and to others, through speech and action. I am unconsciously playing the role of “the angry person”, and I will now go round finding things and people to get angry AT! Trees, cars, animals, words – anything is fair game. Without the objects or people to be angry AT, how could I know myself as “the angry one”? I must fuel my identity! I protect myself from identity death by projecting my anger onto everything and everyone I see. A timeless moment of anger is now brought into time, and the cycle begins. I am identified as a separate person.

Years later, I may even be regurgitating the same story, repeating the experience endlessly, regurgitating the story of “me and my anger” and how justified I was to be angry, how I was wronged, how awful or horrible that person or thing was. I may repeat this to my children, and they will repeat it to their children, and the identification will pass through the generations, and the cycle of prejudice and violence will be kept intact. This is the true meaning of reincarnation. And it all continues until the cycle is broken, in the moment, through deep acceptance of what arises. Love, in the deeper meaning of the word, destroys karma.

In deep acceptance, the raw life energy that we call “anger” (or fear, or pain…) is met deeply as it arises in the moment, and known as none other than myself. The raw sensation of it is deeply allowed to be here, to live its own little life, and to die in its own good time. The label “anger” doesn’t even need to arise, for no labels are required in the mystery of this. And labels, if they do arise, are also welcomed as part of the mystery. Sensation is welcomed, and is allowed to be, and allowed to pass in its own sweet way. The intensity of life is embraced.

The thoughts, sensations and feelings that arise in the ocean that we are, the “children” of consciousness as I call them – yes, consciousness is the ultimate parent! – are not aborted, nor euthanized, nor denied. They are honoured. They are met in presence. They never become the enemy. And so we never move into identification as a limited being. “The angry one” is never born – there is only a moment of anger. “The frustrated one” never has to arise – only a moment of frustration. “The victim of pain” never has a chance to take root – there is only this intense sensation we call “pain”. And these waves arise and dissolve in the vast ocean that we are, never becoming “permanent”. “The hurt one” is seen for the phantom image that it is. “The victim” is just a story, here in the vastness of you. This remembering of vastness – which is the vastness of us all – reverberates throughout the generations. Karma is never created, and so it is never passed on. You do not meet your loved ones as “the angry person” or “the hurt one”, or “the one who is afraid”, but as the boundless vastness in which anger, fear, pain, doubt, in which all energy is deeply allowed to arise and fall. In healing yourself from misidentification, others are automatically healed from “you”. Karma is no longer “carried”, and the cycle is broken.

A present moment is not just a present moment. It is precious and sacred and pregnant with potential. It is an invitation to free your loved ones from “you”, both now and in future generations, by no longer participating in the creation of karma. In freeing yourself in this way, you free the universe for all time.